The Yolo Habitat Conservation Plan/Natural Communities Conservation Plan (“Yolo HCP/ NCCP”) has been developed to provide for the conservation of twelve (12) sensitive species and the natural communities and agricultural land on which they depend, and to provide a streamlined permitting process to address the effects a range of future anticipated activities on those species. The Yolo HCP/NCCP was developed by the County of Yolo and the cities of Davis, Woodland, Winters, and West Sacramento (with the University of California, Davis, in an ex officio capacity) through the Yolo County Habitat/Natural Community Conservation Plan Joint Powers Agency, known and referred to informally as the Yolo Habitat Conservancy (“Conservancy”).
The purpose of this Ordinance is to provide for implementation of the Yolo HCP/NCCP in a manner that achieves, among other things, the following objectives: (a) To protect, enhance, and restore natural communities and cultivated lands, including rare and endangered species habitat, and provide for the conservation of covered species within Yolo County; (b) To replace the current system of separately permitting and mitigating individual projects with a conservation and mitigation program, set forth in the Yolo HCP/ NCCP, that comprehensively coordinates the implementation of permit requirements through the development of a countywide conservation strategy, including identification of priority acquisition areas in riparian zones or other locations with important species habitat; (c) To provide for additional habitat conservation that is otherwise unlikely to take place in Yolo County and benefit both listed species and project proponents by ensuring a more efficient, effective approach to mitigation; and (d) To ensure that the Conservancy, in its capacity as the implementing entity for the Yolo HCP/NCCP, collects the local development mitigation fees necessary to assist with plan implementation and all of the related objectives set forth above. (§ 2, Ord. 1499, eff. July 5, 2018)